The present disclosure relates to patient support apparatuses such as hospital beds and particularly, to hospital beds having movable mattress support sections for moving a patient to a variety of positions. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to patient support apparatuses used with patients that are connected via patient care lines to medical devices such as IV pumps.
Patients in hospitals are oftentimes connected to various types of medical devices by patient care lines. For example, a patient may receive intravenous (IV) fluids from an IV pump via a tube or hose. As another example, a patient may be connected via wires to a heart monitor such an electrocardiograph (EKG). Patients may be coupled to other equipment such as pulse oximeters, blood pressure monitors, and electroencephalographs (EEG's), via patient care lines. Patients connected to this type of medical equipment are oftentimes supported on hospital beds having pivotable mattress support sections. Such hospital beds have various powered actuators, such as electric linear actuators or hydraulic cylinders, which raise, lower, or otherwise move the mattress support sections to reposition the patient in a desired manner. Such hospital beds may also have motors that raise, lower, and tilt an upper frame that supports the mattress support deck relative to a base frame of the bed.
Hospital beds also typically have siderails along the sides of the bed. IV poles may be coupled to IV pole sockets of the bed on some occasions and carry IV pumps or other types of patient care equipment. Line management devices are sometimes coupled to the IV pole sockets and some IV poles even include line management devices. During articulation or movement of the mattress support sections of the bed, it is possible for the patient care lines to catch on portions of the bed, such as the siderails, or other equipment, and become tensioned inadvertently. In some instances, the patient care lines may become tensioned simply due to running out of slack without catching on anything else. In extreme cases, the lines may become disconnected from the patient or from the associated medical device due to the tensioning of the lines. Sometimes IV lines may become kinked or blocked which typically results in an alarm being generated by the associated IV pump.